Playoffs will mostly be split up between TSN and CBC. It might not be worth it for SNET to get a big chunk of games in May and June considering that they are committed to airing all Blue Jays games.

I just hope that Bell & Rogers can pry away some HNIC Leafs games from CBC. I can't stand watching Hughson and Healy comment on Leafs games. They're extremely biased against the Leafs. CBC does not deserve to broadcast Leafs games anymore. Lets see how HNIC fares when you put on two small market Canadian teams, like Winnipeg vs. Ottawa.

CBC will not pay top dollar if the Leafs are not part of the equation.

Everyone wants a piece. Its in the NHL's best interest to have as many partners as possible. Problem in Canada is that the regional packages are important as well. So if you create another national package, it has to be at the expense of the regional deal.

What will be interesting is if Bell and Rogers come together and make a bid for the main national package. Much like when they bought MLSE to guarantee content, they were able to avoid bidding against one another. If they could come to some arrangement on a rotation on their various outlets, they could easily outbid CBC.

But if CBC loses the hockey deal, they might be dead, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Agreed. TSN is like Canada's ESPN. They are amazing at hyping up events. The CFL has benefited tremendously from being on TSN, and TSN has treated the CFL royally. TSN has pulled all the stops in marketing the CFL.

CFL will probably be willing to take a small cut to take advantage of the TSN hype machine.

Agreed. TSN is like Canada's ESPN. They are amazing at hyping up events. The CFL has benefited tremendously from being on TSN, and TSN has treated the CFL royally. TSN has pulled all the stops in marketing the CFL.

CFL will probably be willing to take a small cut to take advantage of the TSN hype machine.

The CFL would be insane to weaken their relationship with TSN. I think you could make a strong case that TSN saved the league. CBC broadcasts were horrible, and when CTV was involved they were worse.

But if CBC loses the hockey deal, they might be dead, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

As much as Bettman would sell his own mother if he could get a better deal, he realises this is the situation. If the CBC were to lose hockey, it could completely kill the station and they would probably never recover. Some people might think this is a good thing but it reduces the competition. So TSN/CTV could overpay for this contract, and then the next time completely underbid since there is no one to oppose them. That is why I think HNIC is safe for now.

On the other hand, the NHL has slowly been pulling back rights that CBC used to have. There are more Canadian teams playing Sat afternoon to avoid HNIC and get their own local TV dollars. CBC no longer has exclusivity for Canadian teams in the playoffs and not even the full 3rd round. I think the next deal might even see HNIC lose their Saturday night exclusivity and perhaps a full semi-final series going to TSN.

CBC will have to pony up the cash if they want to keep HNIC but could still lose exclusivity. With so many Canadian teams and two more on the way the NHL would be better off splitting it two or three ways anyway. Also Toronto Night In Canada on CBC is going to be a thing of the past. Rogers and Bell own the Leafs and I expect they use that position to make most if not all the Leafs games a Rogers/Bell property. They be fool not to but they pay market value for those rights.

Expect Quebecor to make a splash both by owning the New Nordique but also by starting an English version of TVA Sports. I expect new national deal to be up for grab for just about every days of the week. Rogers will grab Friday and Sunday, TSN will grab Monday on top of Wednesday. CBC will be told that if they want to keep Saturday they have to add another day like Tuesday. The NHL will want to maximise their Canadian revenue stream and exposure because that where the big sponsorship money is. The bigger the exposure the bigger the sponsorship revenue. Also regional blackout will be gone the network don't like the angst they get from clients because of them and cable operator are moving kicking and screaming to "a la carte" offering. Bell FibeTV and Videotron are doing it and the rest will join them in the 21th century sooner or later. In a real "a la carte" system if a channel piss you off by having blackout that channel is gone am looking at you Sporstnet! Centre Ice will become the thing you buy to watch American teams play against American teams.

No matter what happen your cable bill will go up. The NHL will sell you chunk of Centre Ice by sneaking part of it inside other network and you're going to pay for it if you want any sports no matter if you want CI or not.

CBC will retain the saturday night rights, 2 playoff series per round, one of the conference championships and the finals.

TSN will pick up the rest of the playoffs, retain their current package.

Sportsnet will get a less desirable national deal of some sort maybe Sundays or something along those lines.

That's how it's going to end up.

I can see this being the most likely scenario. Even at a lower cost, the NHL benefits from having CBC on board. As others have said, it enables them to have multiple Canadian bidders, whilst having a regular showcase every Saturday night for the NHL product that will be the centrepiece of an entire network . I think part of the continued success of the NFL for instance is that there are a guaranteed number of NFL games available on free-to-air stations (CBS and Fox) at specific times every Sunday, which keeps the interest of casual fans. It makes sense in that respect for the NHL to continue with CBC. I don't think it makes much sense for the NHL to go down the same route as MLB and have one conference final series being shown on a free-to-air channel and another being shown on cable.

CBC is a great example of the negative effects of American cultural hegemony and of how even the best laid social institutions can rot from institutional neglect. It wasn't so long ago that CBC could compete by producing high end CanCon and importing a smattering of British and American shows to supplement it. Canadians who love other institutions, like the healtchare system, need only to tune to the Ceeb to be reminded of what can happen to proud social institutions.

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Originally Posted by knorthern knight

Just like the Grey Cup? And the entire CFL season for that matter?

The CFL is peanuts compared to the NHL. They take scraps of interest where they can get it. The NHL would logically be more concerned with the future of cable as a distribution model... if, as I think many people expect, it's days are approaching a point of being numbered in the US, it won't be long before Canada follows suit. Investing too heavily in cable in an era of cable cutting, online and on-demand streaming and growing calls south of the border for the federal government to force ala carte bundling would be too foolish an error for even the NHL to make.

But I doubt Conservative Harper would like to be seen as anti-Patriotic. And if he cans HNIC, it will hurt his image.

The Canadian Tories are like Janus... wrapping themselves up in Queen and country and then attacking any cultural institution that dares not meet their Darwinian standards. They like to have their cake and eat it, too. They can only manage this, though, by being experts at the game. They won't do anything that would jeopardize HNiC, there's no obvious gain from it. They will cut CBC funding, but I wouldn't be shocked if they specifically budgeted a certain amount for the continuing of Hockey Night. The people feeling the deep cuts will be those providing local radio services, regional niche programming and other "meaningless" cultural content that aren't profit making national institutions.

You'll see Coronation Street off of CBC before HNiC, but that one wouldn't actually be a loss.

The Canadian Tories are like Janus... wrapping themselves up in Queen and country and then attacking any cultural institution that dares not meet their Darwinian standards. They like to have their cake and eat it, too. They can only manage this, though, by being experts at the game. They won't do anything that would jeopardize HNiC, there's no obvious gain from it. They will cut CBC funding, but I wouldn't be shocked if they specifically budgeted a certain amount for the continuing of Hockey Night. The people feeling the deep cuts will be those providing local radio services, regional niche programming and other "meaningless" cultural content that aren't profit making national institutions.

You'll see Coronation Street off of CBC before HNiC, but that one wouldn't actually be a loss.

CBC does not need government funding for HNiC. It is paid for by its own advertising revenues.

As part of the extension, TSN and RDS secure exclusive media rights to all CFL pre-season and regular season games, playoffs, and the Canadian icon that is the Grey Cup, as well as to the CFL Draft and CFL Combine. The CFL regular season broadcast schedule expands to 81 games next year in 2014 when the new Ottawa franchise joins the league. The CFL will also see additional games broadcast in French with more games being broadcast on RDS2.